Over the course of the last two months, our team in the Southwest have been working on a large-scale vegetation clearance, tree works and grass-cutting project.
It's the first part of a two-part project with further grass cutting, tree works, vegetation clearance and hydroseeding taking place in March 2024. The work is taking place within a Site of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a scheduled monument; as such, we needed consent from both Natural England and Historic England.
All clearance works were undertaken with a 'watching brief' supervised by an experienced ecologist. Onsite, our Ecological Clerk of Works (Emily Millis from our Consultancy division) had a complete walk-through in the days leading up to the start date with both the designer and our client.
All the work was scheduled for night shifts to ensure minimal disruption to road users, so it was great for our ECoW to see the area in the daylight before work started. Once the work began, we had our ECoW onsite at different project stages. As well as pre-start talks with the team, Emily conducted a pre-start walkover of the location and checked the area for nesting birds, reptiles and mammals using our thermal imaging technology.
On specific plots, we had to be careful not to disturb the ground as far as practicable; our ECoW was there to ensure compliance with all consents. We had a large crew on site, up to 12 team members for some plots. We used a variety of kit to ensure the smooth running of the job, including an 8-tonne excavator with grab, a 3-tonne excavator with grab, tractors and trailer to dispose of wood chips, a whole tree chipper, a robocut, tower lights, an 8-inch tracked chipper and tippers to take the green waste away as well as welfare vans.
We're really proud of the work so far and know our clients are pleased with the job too.
Contact us below if you've got a tricky project that requires work around an SSSI or environmental concerns, and you need a trusted supplier to partner with.
